Cold planers are machines used during paving operations to remove a layer of material, such as asphalt, off the ground surface with its milling rotor. A cold planer typically has a transmission system that couples an engine to a milling rotor.
In some cases, cold planers may offer limited spaces for installation of transmission systems. The limited space poses tight space constraints during an installation of the transmission system, thus making the transmission system difficult to connect at positions of the engine and the milling rotor. For example, space constraints may require the gearing for the engine and the milling rotor to be disposed in non-coaxial and non-coplanar relation to each other. Thus, large-scale manufacturers of construction machinery, such as cold planers, may sometimes find themselves in situations where the transmission systems are difficult to install due to the tight space constraints. This situation makes installation of the transmission systems complex. Alternatively, it can be difficult to install a rotor onto the transmission system when the manufacturer or customer desires to couple milling rotors of different widths to an existing engine.
One way known to deal with this situation is to install gearing boxes within the transmission system. However, these gearing boxes are bulky and lose power during the transmission from the engine to the milling rotor. The transmission losses subsequently affect the overall productivity of the cold planer. Further, these gearing boxes experience overheating during operation thus requiring cooling systems to keep the transmission system from overheating. Typical cooling systems include pumps, compressors, and cooling lines, and installation and operation of these cooling systems may incur additional expenses. Typical transmission systems are also heavy and difficult to transport from one place to another along with the associated cooling systems.
In order to mitigate the aforesaid situations, manufacturers may redesign various parameters of the machine in order to accommodate different rotor sizes. Conversely, the manufacturers may produce altogether different machines that individually cater to specific size requirements of the milling rotor. However, the aforesaid processes may be expensive and time consuming.
GB Patent 2 449 916 relates to a variable ratio belt drive comprising a first belt, a compound double pulley having a first variable diameter pulley engaged by the first belt and a second variable diameter pulley engaged by a second drive belt. The compound double pulley is arranged such that increases in an effective diameter of one pulley produce corresponding reductions in effective diameter of the other pulley. The belt drive further comprises a third spring-loaded variable diameter pulley which also engages the second drive belt, and a control actuator for varying the effective diameters of the first and second drive pulleys thus varying an overall ratio of the belt drive. Although the variable ratio belt drive accounts for an axial offset between a load and a prime mover, it does not account for cases where an axial and planar offset exists between the load and the prime mover.